Seems like the message hidden in this image was actually much more boring than I assumed.

The animation has been updated to one that has less combinations of 'random' numbers and settles on the co-ordinates: 34.040063, -118.266846231

These lead us to Los Angeles, California, close to both the LA Convention Centre, where Black Ops 2 is expected to be revealed at E3, and the Staples Centre, where the NBA Playoffs are taking place, during which Black Ops 2's world reveal will air on May 1st.

Original Story:

Yesterday, Call of Duty.com updated their images. The Tacitus image was redone without all the distortion, and a new image was added (above - click to see it animated). This time, it was an animated gif, which cycles through five different codes:

34.84E56C, -C4E.271B662D1

34.34E76B, -AFC.2FD106541

34.849C64, -271.272956371

34.D4416E, -A98.287886AC1

34.D46660, -CBE.28C7C68D1

At first glance, these codes seem like nothing, but let's replace the letters with the corresponding number (A = 1, B = 2, etc.):

34.845563, -345.271266241

34.345762, -163.264106541

34.849364, -271.272956371

34.444165, -198.287886131

34.446660, -325.283736841

Now they are beginning to look like co-ordinates, but the longitude is too high - it must be between -180 and 180. To solve this, I treat the co-ordinates as if they have gone around the world several times (so -185 would be +175)

Changing the letters to numbers:

34.845563, 15.271266241

34.345762, -163.264106541

34.849364, 89.272956371

34.444165, 162.287886131

34.446660, 35.283736841

I then plotted these co-ordinates on a map (blue points, ignore the red one):

Now, we compare these points, with the paths of future total solar eclipses:

The eclipse paths and 4 / 5 of the co-ordinates match. This seems too much of a coincidence not to be anything, especially as the game is being developed under the code name of Eclipse!